Traveling with children

We moved from a busy town when the youngest was 1 year old.  She travels fine in a car and doesn't get car sick.  Now we live miles from anywhere.  The car isn't a feature of our everyday lives so the younger two didn't grow up getting used to it and both get car sick.  They do local journeys to swimming/gymnastics/karate etc and are getting better.  On longer journeys we have to be prepared for car sickness.  We've never made a big thing out of it and consequently they don't make a fuss, sick, clean up, and they're okay again.  Spare clothes are permanently packed in the boot and true to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy advice, we're never without a towel.  We also have a pack of wet wipes in the glovebox, two crab buckets and a bottle of water.  The "sick buckets" as they are known serve us well, we can wash them out with the water and wipe the child and be on our way.  We are so practiced that we can rival a formula one pitstop for a clean, empty the bucket, wipe and back on our way.  I've also found a carrier bag attached to the headrest serves as a good rubbish bin.  Otherwise the car just gets covered in crisp packets and old fruit.

Two of ours with the Butlins Skyline gang

Letting them have books or electronic toys would just make them sick so they don't have them.  This makes for some interesting conversations in the car, and you have to be prepared to play 20 questions or i-spy endlessly.  The youngest didn't quite master i-spy; "I spy with my little eye something beginning with P."  After much deliberation and all of us giving up, she revealed the answer... purple turtle!

On another journey we passed a large building that we thought was a private school.  It then transpired that the middle child would like to go to a private boarding school.  We try never to be negative so told her she could if she saved up enough money, and going by her entrepreneur skills, it is is not an impossibility!

When they were younger we'd make sure they had a drink (water only), fruit, biscuits and crisps and whatever I remembered to bring.  I think water is the best drink.  If they have fruit shoots they drink them because they like the taste then we have to stop for a wee.  They will only drink water if they are thirsty.  As they are getting old, toilet stops are getting less frequent.  However, we still have the habit of asking them to go to the toilet before we set off.

On long journeys they are allowed to bring a cuddly toy, a blanket and a pillow.  They can get quite comfortable and hopefully snooze on the journey.  It can be quite surreal with the wind, rain and storms outside and a picture of tranquility and warmth on the inside of the car.  Also, I don't go around the corners fast with the children in the car so as not to make their travel sickness worse.

The eldest has an iPad, but still isn't allowed to use it as the others would watch and get travel sick.

We have taken them abroad to Spain.  They've been allowed to pack their own suitcases (well, small ones) and given a list, i.e. 1 cuddly, 1 toy, Nintendo DS etc.  On the plane they had their toys to play with during the flight.  The youngest had a tea set and I was forever being asked if I wanted a cup of tea during the flight.  They treated it like a fairground ride and I heard a "weeeee" as we took off!

On holiday in Spain

HRH Prog 2

I won 6 free tickets to HRH:Prog 2.  Eventually I found some friends to join me to make up the 6 (not all of them made it but that's another story).  Last year I won tickets to Prog 1in Sheffield but couldn't find a single person to go with me. 

The weekend was amazing.  There were 3 stages, Prog, AOR and Blues taking up the three main entertainment venues in Haven's Hafan-y-Mor in Pwllheli.  Having only a 1 hour drive to see so many bands was a bonus.  I spoke to a local who had travelled 3 miles to get there but normally has to fork out £150 to see just one band elsewhere.  (Pwllheli is on the west of Wales, as are we, so it is a long drive to get to any venues that have big names).

The check-in was painless.  Straight in, name given and keys and information pack handed over.  I'm used to turning up at holiday parks and queuing for ages with 3 small children.  (Okay, so it's an unfair comparison as this check-in was spread over 3 days whereas normally holiday parks have to check in everyone in an afternoon).

The bands were from midday to after midnight.  We'd checked out some of them on youtube beforehand to see how early we wanted to start watching.  We started with Shattered Skies who appeared to be from Ireland.  I'd describe them more as heavy rock than prog.  The sound was so loud it was distorted so it was difficult to tell what they were playing.  Whether it was my ears exceeding their limit or the PA's capability being exceeded I don't know.  I did notice that the sound engineers were wearing ear-plugs so I wonder if they were able to tell how it really sounded.  We then watched Chimp Spanner who sounded quite similar.  After that came the Pineapple Thief.  Their sound was a bit quieter so we could hear what was going on.  There was more variety and texture to their music, I liked them.  Of course having silly creative names means that these bands are very easy to find on google.  The same can't be said for the band "A" who have disappeared without trace.

Then it was time for what for me was an excellent double bill.  Focus then the Flower Kings.  I last saw the Flower Kings at the Whitchurch (Hampshire) music festival.  I saw Focus sometime after that but can't remember where.  Focus were excellent.  They played their hits and sounded great.  Then the Flower Kings.  I'm a big fan of their music before Rainmaker (2001) as they sounded a bit dull after that.  Their latest, Desolation Rose, harks back to their earlier albums with more texture and different rhythms.  A bonus was they played a medley of older songs.  We left the Prog stage as we weren't keen on seeing the last band and due to time slippages it was getting late.

Saturday.  A nice relaxing day in the caravan, late cooked breakfast (by me) and then dinner at the Mash & Barrel.  It is always a challenge cooking in a caravan as you never know what is working and what equipment you have.  The oven wouldn't light so I had to improvise with a piece of paper but apart from that I managed to make a decent cooked breakfast.  The caravan was nice and clean.  It only had a gas fire in the lounge but helpfully the booking in instructions suggested bringing an extra heater, which we did and it made all the difference.

We got to the Prog stage in time for Panic Room.  There were few seats for non-VIP ticket holders in the stages, but we always managed to find a seat if we wanted one as there was a high turnover of people.  Panic Room were great, I was tempted to go straight over to merchandising to buy their latest album.  Then we had Hawklords.  My gig companion wanted to get as close as possible and I'm glad we did.  Their backdrop consisted of ever changing pictures related to the music.  There was a lot of talking and weird sounds and some good grooves.  Then came The Enid.  I was aware of The Enid from an album many years ago and thought they were "a bit weird."  I've now changed my opinion to, "SO weird."  They had a very expressive lead singer who sang in a falsetto voice and played an electronic wind instrument.  Also a guitar/keyboard player who made extensive use of a vocoder which added depth and texture to the vocals.  I think a good singer can make or break a band and this singer was brilliant.

Graham Bonnet
My friends wanted to see Graham Bonnet so it was time to move to the AOR stage, which in fact was just yards away, past the conveniently placed outside bar.  Getting drinks was painless.  There were very small queues, if at all, although £4 for a pint of Stella was very steep for North Wales.  We joined Graham whilst he was singing Since You've Been Gone, an old Rainbow song.  I am a big fan of Rainbow and it never occurred to me that he would be singing Rainbow songs.  I didn't know if he'd released his own songs before or after Rainbow, but he sang nothing but Rainbow songs.  He did Stargazer, Long Live Rock'n'Roll, All Night Long, Lost in Hollywood, Catch the Rainbow and others.  Also the band gave him a break and did an instrumental medley of bits of Rainbow songs.  It was fantastic, his voice is still as good as ever and he still wears the sunglasses as I remember on the Rainbow videos (he is 66).  I shall be finding out his tour dates now.  (I've since discovered this appeared to be a Rainbow themed tour.)  The AOR venue appeared to be the largest of the three, probably a reflection of the popularity of the music.  Neither the AOR or Prog venues were too crowded.  We only ventured into the Blues arena for a few minutes.

UFO
After Rainbow, I mean Graham, were UFO.  I saw them at a previous HRH at Prestatyn.  They were great then and still are now.  Phil Mogg (lead singer) has such a happy-cockney-chappie attitude.  He talks to the audience and seems really at ease.  They played a lot of their hits and I distinctly remember they played a lesser known track from Obsession; one of their albums I own.  We had planned on on going to see some blues after UFO but again it was late and the blues band would probably have finished by the time we got there.

Everyone was really friendly, something I've noticed about North Wales compared to the impersonal and cold south of England where I used to live.  A guy sat next to use and started falling asleep.  His pint tilted precariously, I told my friend to take it off him and put it on the table, which she did, the guy looked appreciative and carried on falling asleep, which he then succeeded in doing.  In the south of England, he'd have been chucked out,  here, the first bouncer asked him if he was okay, the second told him to go outside, but made sure he took his beer with him!

Overall a fantastic experience.  An inexpensive and enjoyable way to see so many bands and have a weekend away.  We've already booked for next year.   We have no idea who is playing but the HRH people always have a good lineup, and next year there is also a Sci-Fi weekender on at the same time which will hopefully keep the wife happy.